Sunday, May 21st

When God calls us to follow Him, it’s not a call to comfort and convenience. God calls us to leave, to go, to follow Him often out of our comfort zone. As we walk by faith and follow His lead, life gets way more exciting than we could ever imagine. Do you view your life with God as an adventure?

Work through the following Scriptures and questions on your own, and get together with your running partner, Life Group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Describe your most adventurous “going” experience. Perhaps it was a vacation, a work-related trip, or a change in residence.
2. Read Hebrews 11:8-10. Have you ever felt compelled to step out of your comfort zone? What challenges and /or blessings did you experience for taking that step of faith?
3. What encourages you when circumstances look bleak and things don’t go as you expect?
4. Read Hebrews 11:11-12. In what area of your life right now are you experiencing a holding pattern? What can you do to keep from being impatient and short-circuiting God’s timing?
5. Read Hebrews 11:17-19. When have you experienced a time where your faith was tested repeatedly with increasing intensity? How did your confidence grow or diminish during this trial?
6. What are ways you can grow your faith? How does committing to new opportunities stretch you?
7. How have you seen the equation “Tests + Trust + Time = Friendship” apply to your relationship with God? In what ways do you see the retelling of the story of Abraham relevant to your life?

KEY SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 11:8-10 — By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:11-12 — By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Hebrews 11:17-19 — By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

DIGGING DEEPER

• Read Abraham’s story in Genesis 12-22.

Spiritual Outcome — Trust God